With Congress Still MIA on AI, State Legislators Expand Their Efforts at Regulation

Speaking to the National Association of State CIOs annual conference last week, program principal for financial services, technology and communications at the National Conference of State Legislatures Chelsea Canada said state lawmakers have introduced roughly 1,000 pieces of AI-related legislation in 2025 alone, and seen about 100 enacted into law. The most ambitious measures to pass and be enacted were seen in Colorado, Texas, Utah and California.

The lack of movement in Congress on AI is a key driver behind state efforts, she said, according to Route Fifty.

“A lot of these trends track from questions around consumer data privacy laws we’ve been seeing parallel to the conversation around AI regulation, many states taking up data privacy laws without a federal standard that’s been put in place,” Canada said. “The same goes with AI policy. Why there’s so many proposals across the U.S. is because of that lack of AI policy at the federal level.”

Most of the bills filed this year—about 450—were aimed at regulating private use of AI, according to Canada. Government use was the next most popular target of legislation.

Earlier this year Congress attempted to impose a 10-year moratorium on states passing or enforcing AI regulations as part of the Big Beautiful Bill budget reconciliation act. The provision was ultimately stripped from the version of the bill that passed and was signed by the president.

Since then, the White House has released the AI Action Plan for America, which seeks to limit states’ ability to regulate AI by conditioning receipt of certain federal funds on states eliminating “overly burdensome” AI regulations.

Read more: Federal vs. State: Lawmakers Clash Over AI Regulation Authority

Congress has debated several bills targeting specific uses of AI over the past two years, including the SANDBOX Act, which would grant AI developers limited waivers of some regulation to experiment with new designs and applications; the No FAKES Act targeting deepfakes; the REAL Political Advertising Act prohibiting the use of AI-generated content in political ads; and the American Privacy Rights Act, which would create a comprehensive privacy framework that would include limits on the use of personal data in AI training.

None of those bills have made it to the president’s desk, however.

Many of the bills introduced in statehouses this year echo the concerns reflected in the federal efforts, according to Canada. Many of the state bills seek to regulate the use of AI in healthcare, for instance, due to its potential to compromise sensitive health information. Deepfakes, especially involving their use in political advertising, were also a popular target, a trend expected to ramp up as the 2026 midterm elections draw closer.

Some states are also looking to leverage laws already on the books to limit AI’s use to create sexually explicit material, according to Canada. “In the sexually explicit bucket, some states are looking at maybe just already using the laws that are on the books and expanding definitions to include computer generated [content],” she said. “There’s not really consensus on some of these, and AI definitions are still in process.”